The Order of the Scythe
by Lightning Eyed
Summary: What was it like to be on the other side? How did the people of the Titans' Army, or as it was known to them, Order of the Scythe, see themselves? The questions may not be pleasant, but they will eventually become unavoidable, and there isn't a better place to get the answers than from someone who was in the Order. T for mild language and violence.
1. A Dangerous Book

I was always too easily swayed. When in first grade my friend asked me for my cookies because she didn't get some I gave them to her. When I wanted to be my dad's assistant but let Bobby get away with it instead. And then there was when Octavian tried to make the whole camp watch Adventure Time. I believe me and Dakota were the only ones who did that, and him only because Octavian promised Dakota even more Kool-Aid. It was also the second-to-worst thing I'd ever watched, the first being Twilight. Both do, in fact, involve ugly vampires.

I'm also too easily corrupted.

The two of those together don't make an excellent mix, but let us begin at the beginning that I remember all too well.

It was maybe seven years ago, when I was new at camp. I was eight years old. I didn't get along well with anyone. I was in the Third Cohort, and therefore all the people in the First and Second considered me garbage and the ones in the Fourth and Fifth decided to ignore me because they thought I was joking when I was friendly to them. I was talented- I could play the trumpet, and I could sword fight. I could run like a boss. I could sort of sing, but I just didn't fit in there.

I was in the library. There was a corner that nobody went in, not because it was haunted or anything. It was just that that particular corner held books about the Titans, and we rarely studied the Titans. I wasn't supposed to be in that corner. I was supposed to be on the opposite side of the library, reading little books about the gods. I slipped through the stacks to the corner. There was a book that caught my attention- a thin but large volume with a purple-and-green cover. I was about to pull it off the shelf when I heard voices coming towards my corner of the library. I ducked over to the next row and pretended to be reading a fiction story about a legacy of Nike who goes to a school in Greece. I rejoined my class soon after the voices passed; thankfully no one noticed.

I couldn't help thinking about the book, though. Normal eight-year-old girls probably dreamed of dancing with the prince, but my favorite scene in Beauty and the Beast is the one where he gives Belle this humongous library. I was a bibliophile- I couldn't help reading whatever I saw, be it fact or fiction.

That night, I forgot the book completely. It was two years later, when we finally did a project on the Titans and meandered into that corner of the library, that I thought to pick up the book. And so I did, along with a few others. I checked them out, and during free time I finally got around to reading them.

The title was etched on the cover in sharp-looking silver letters. By sharp I mean that they looked as if they could come right out of the purple leather and cut you. The green strips that reinforced the binding ended in curving points, and they weren't frayed at all. It looked as though the book had never been touched.

I should have taken that as a bad sign, or maybe the fact that the librarian hadn't questioned my checking it out.

The book was called _The Order of the Scythe._

I am Elizabeth Venata and this is the story of my life in the Titan army.


	2. The Rebel's Ship

I ran my fingers over the title. It threw a hailstorm of mixed emotions up at me. It creeped me out and it intrigued me. It made me feel powerful and minor. I loved it and I hated it.

I opened the book. Interestingly enough, despite its brand-new look, it smelled musty and old, and ever so slightly like chocolate chip cookies. Burnt ones. The title was penned on the first page in a script that was flowing but just as pointed as the cover text. I turned the page.

_Many of you may consider what is in this book to be fantasy. Many of you have been taught that the Titans could never make a comeback. I assure you that this is a true document. If this book has caught your eye, the Fates have a cruel sense of humor. This is a record of all the gods, demigods, nymphs, and other creatures that I have thus far enlisted in my army. It will make clear to you the situation the world is currently facing. If you run to tell the gods, you will die a brutal and painful death before you get there. Now that you have picked up the book, you have two choices- shut the book and shut up, or read on. This copy of the record will be stationed at Camp Jupiter, which we will visit in October of 2006 on our way to restore Mount Othrys. If you do in fact happen to tell about this record, tell it to people who are likely to join us. Meet me on Halloween Night at the entrance to your camp._

_The Titan Lord Kronos and Luke Castellan son of Hermes_

My lips scrunched at the fact that the book used their Greek names. Also at the fact that this guy Luke was my Greek half-brother. It couldn't be real- they told us the Greeks died off long ago because they didn't have a safe place.

I sighed. I guessed I'd sign up for guard duty Halloween night and figure out.

I looked through the next few pages of the book. They listed people and things like their birthdate, birthplace, link to the mythological world, identifying features, and role in this 'army.' A few names caught my eye- Lysia Elliott. Ethan Nakamura. Tatiana Reese and Chris Rodriguez. Jay Willow.

Tatiana Reese was a legionnaire. I'd met an Ethan Nakamura on a camp trip once. The others were just interesting.

Then I came across another name I recognized: my own.

_Elizabeth Venata, 10/26/1995. Born Minneapolis Hospital, Minnesota. Daughter of Mercury, scars on right forehead and left knee. Membership pending._

I swallowed hard. How did they know so much?

Halloween was next week. My birthday was in two days. I would be turning eleven.

For my birthday, I got a few presents from my half-siblings. Bobby even gave me a cell phone, but the praetor, Sonia, confiscated it. Like somehow it could get monsters past the Tiber, as was rumored with cell phones.

I sat on my bed that afternoon, contemplating the book. I decided to bring up the matter to Tatiana tonight at dinner, and so I did when we made it to dinner.

"Tatiana," I hissed, poking out from behind a pillar in the mess hall before Tati's friends caught up.

"What?" she snapped.

"Does the name Order of the Scythe mean anything to you?"

Tati stiffened. "Diu Titanas," she whispered under her breath.

_Long live the Titans._

"Why do you ask?" she said, her gaze finally greeting me as a friend.

"Because I found a book," I said. "And it said your name in it."

"Of course," she said. "Are you coming on Halloween?

"I haven't got a choice."

"Alright. Well… it's going to be you, me, Octavian, and Cassius. You're the junior female guard that night?"

"Yes."

Tatiana half smiled. "Pack anything you need badly, like magic items or anything of sentimental value. It has to fit in your guard bag. We'll be walking to the harbor where the cruise ship is docked."

"There's a cruise ship?"

Tatiana motioned for me to hush as her friends walked in. "Yes."

I walked briskly over to my table, where some of my friends and siblings had placed a cake that said _Happy Birthday Lizzy_ in bright green icing. I smiled, but it wasn't a full smile. I could easily die before my next birthday. I'd never spend another one with my siblings. In fact, I still had a choice whether to go or not.

No. My mind was made up. History wasn't "this guy's the hero and this one's the villain." No. It all depended on perspective and if you were remembered, you were remembered. I wanted to make my mark on history and it didn't matter to me how I made it. I felt that this gave me a better chance. All my life I'd wanted to be important.

Five nights later, my mother's bracelet, my winged sandals, and the picture of my younger sister Amanda were packed into my guard bag. My sword was strapped to my side. I slung the bag over my shoulder, trying to keep my armor from clanking. A chilly wind blew through the door as I opened it, causing the pages of the book to flip on my bed. Tatiana had said to leave it.

I stepped off the porch and up the road to the gate. At the top of the hill, my shoulders ached from carrying my armor. The legion's augur, Octavian, was there already.. Cassius and Tatiana were coming up the hill- I could just see their shapes in the light the sliver moon provided. They reached the top in a few short minutes. I could hear the sounds of younger legacies and retired legionnaires trick-or-treating in the city, far below. I might miss it, I decided.

My attention was drawn to a tall figure approaching along the side of the highway. His eyes caught the light well enough to tell they were a pale blue. His hair was platinum-blonde and dusted his ears, and there was a scar cutting from his forehead to his chin across his eye.

"Just you four," he stated.

"No, there's actually twenty of us and we've all got invisibility cloaks," Octavian said sarcastically. Tatiana glared at him.

"Come with me," the boy said, obviously not amused by Octavian's sarcasm—not that anyone was.

Watch Sonia, Matthew, and the rest of this pitiful legion try to stop me. I was fighting for the other side now.


	3. A Burden of Rocks

We must have walked several miles. My feet hurt by the time we got to the dock, and the sun was starting to glow faintly behind the horizon.

"When we get on the boat," Luke said (that was the blonde guy's name), referring to the huge white-and-bronze cruise ship behind him, "you must stay with me until you get your markings. Otherwise, you will be considered spies and the others will not hesitate to kill you." He waved a hand and gestured for us to follow him. We walked up the gangplank, which was actually a section of the ship's side that came out and pulled down, which I thought was neat.

When we got on board, Luke led us down a series of narrow ship hallways and into a ballroom draped over with purple and black velvet. There was nothing in it but a table, a chair, a well of dark ink, and a quill pen with a rather pointy tip.

"As you can tell, we do things a bit differently from the Romans." Luke pulled out the chair, which was made of gilt silver, and picked up the quill pen. "However, there were some things I just couldn't resist, like those lovely identification tattoos of yours. Who's first?"

I felt my legs move and I sat in the chair. Luke dipped the pen into the ink and traced a little line on my arm. It shot prickly needles up my arm- it was ice-cold.

That was even before the memories started…

I remembered every awful, sad, embarrassing, angry, cynical, depressed, and otherwise negative moment I have ever experienced, just as I remember them now. Every memory surfaced; stopped hiding in the back of my brain. I wanted to scream, throw something, or vent my thoughts somehow… but I was paralyzed, as if in a lucid dream- make that a lucid nightmare. Those faded into the proud, amazing, cheerful, friendly moments, shifting just like fluid- and when those were gone, there was just blackness.

I took a breath, and I was right back there in the chair. Luke was watching me from across the table, unfazed, but Tatiana looked like she was about to rush forward. On my left arm- the side opposite the caduceus, on the back of the arm- there was an intricate purple scythe, with a number in Roman numerals- the number three hundred and thirteen. I wondered about that at first, but I wasn't going to ask anyone- that would be embarrassing, because they probably all knew.

"What exactly is your name?"Luke said, glancing at me kinda creepishly with those ice-blue eyes.

"Her name is Elizabeth," Tatiana said. "She's a daughter of Mercury."

Luke's eyebrows raised. "The Roman form of my always-too-busy, never-caring-for-a-second father. Lovely."

I took another shaky breath. "What just happened?"

"That," Luke answered slowly, "depends on what you saw. But I think you were chosen by a Titan."

"Is that unusual at all?"

"No, not unusual," he said. "There are hundreds of Titans, just as there are hundreds of gods. Some of them are on our side. Some are still asleep. Some are choosing to remain neutral. But what did you experience when you blacked out?"

"Memories," I answered quietly. "Mostly the very positive or very negative ones."

"Well, that's fairly major," Cassius said, twisting his mouth. "If it's what I think it is."

"It is," Luke said.

"What is?" Tatiana questioned.

"Elizabeth has been chosen by the Titaness Mnemosyne to be her mortal companion."

"The Lady of Memory," Cassius clarified. "She's symbolized carrying a bunch of rocks, to represent the weight of memories and-"

"We don't need one of your nerd moments, Cassius," Tatiana snapped.

Luke did not look impressed. "You three still need to get your marks inked on. I can always talk to Elizabeth later."

"I really hate being talked about like I'm not here," I said.

"You Romans have such an attitude," Luke grumbled. "You four are each by yourself more annoying than Ethan when I first met him."

"Who's Ethan?" Tatiana asked.

"_And_ you're nosy."

Tatiana huffed and marched over to the chair. I stood up so I wouldn't get in her way. Octavian dug a box of Tic-Tacs out of his guard bag and watched Tatiana get inked like he was watching a movie.

When kids first come to Camp Jupiter, Lupa tells them the most important virtues a Roman can have are strength and courage. At this moment, Tatiana wasn't acting very Roman. When the pen touched her skin, she yelped. About ten seconds had passed before Luke lifted the pen. Tatiana was sitting bolt upright in the chair, a blank expression in her eyes. She was whispering quietly.

Luke narrowed his eyes. "She's been chosen as well. And she proposes a threat to this army should she choose to wield it. Of course, I won't be stupid this time."

"She's Rhea," I said. "The one that tricked Kronos into eating a rock."

Luke twisted up his face. "He should be glad I have a brain, because he sure doesn't."

I had a little gut feeling that if Luke hadn't been his only chance to retake the mortal world, Kronos would have shattered him into dust right there.

Tatiana blinked and her eyes were back to normal.

"I feel sick," she said. "Really sick."

"Karma from making me eat a rock," Luke muttered, so quietly you could barely hear him.

Tatiana glared at him. "I heard that."

"This," Octavian grumbled, "is going to be one memorable experience."

If only he'd know how memorable it would be for me.


	4. The Curse of Prophecies

I combed my hair back into a ponytail and fastened it with a purple velvet string I usually wore around my wrist. Tatiana was making a ruckus in the shower, singing off-key, periodically dropping shampoo bottles, and pretending to make out with her nonexistent boyfriend.

The last part is something I know from her memories.

When I was done brushing my short little ponytail, I pulled on a tight-fitting black T-shirt and olive green cargo pants. After we'd gotten inked the day before, Luke had told us to meet him in the armory this morning. Tatiana was not making that easy to accomplish. I compared my two tattoos- the deep purple scythe and the burned-on, not-really-a-color caduceus. The two seemed to clash, as if fighting over which I was. Even I wasn't sure then. Was I Roman, or was I a minion of the Titans?

Tatiana knew where her loyalties lay. Octavian seemed pretty sure. Cassius may have been struggling, but still leaning towards the Titans.

I was beginning to regret picking up that stupid book.

"Conflicting feelings, Elizabeth?" Luke said directly after I walked out the door, scaring me half to death. "Let me tell you something about our father. He doesn't have time for us. At any given time, he's got twenty people on hold on his caduceus. He's the lone messenger of the gods, and he doesn't need kids to get in his hair. Or he doesn't _want_ us kids to get in his hair. Either way, he hasn't got the time for you or me. But we've got the time for each other. We've got the time to sail this ship around the world three hundred times, enough time to tear down Olympus brick by brick. We have time for our revenge."

There was something in his eyes that scared me. An evil glitter, perhaps.

He lifted my arm, the one with the scythe on it. "You may not be left-handed, but this is who you are, Elizabeth. You're eleven years old?"

I nodded. "Barely."

"They say," he said, staring off into the distance, "that who you are as a child is who you'll be your whole life. That's the biggest load of shit they ever said."

I stared at him. Being eleven, I didn't hear swear words so often then. "Who were you as a child?"

"I don't remember so well," he said, "but I was happier. I was on the gods' side then. My mother wasn't-" He stopped himself, but I knew what he'd been about to say.

_Crazy._

My mother wasn't crazy, but she was near it. She never told me why, but her memories did. She, a legacy of Invidia, had slipped into Tartarus trying to save my older brother. I wondered what had made Luke's mom crazy.

I wasn't going to ask anyways, but my mind pieced together bits of information I shouldn't have known.

No… That I shouldn't have _remembered._

"_The city of Delphi should not be alive," snapped a tall stick of a woman with ferocious eyes and white-blond hair. "Delphi was a legendary place. If the Oracle of Delphi is dead, then the Spirit of Delphi herself cannot remain alive. Yet Delphi is alive. Delphi is the sanctuary of the graeci. Susan… if my son ever finds out about this, he will declare war on the Greeks, and he will try to capture the Oracle. There cannot be another war against our counterparts."_

"_Emma… the Spirit of Delphi still lives," proclaimed another woman, with straight, dark brown hair and violet-blue eyes. "She is trapped inside the mummy of her host. There will be another host, and the Books foretold that the next host will come soon."_

"_Do not speak of the Books to me!" Emma hissed. "They are a remembrance of failure to my bloodline. The greatest of my line will be the one who recovers them. Those stupid books are the reason for our banishment. My ancestors were banished to the position at the altar, never to leave their post, to have all their food and drink brought to them. My grandfathers were banished to the temple, though they could move from the altar. The last few generations were banished only to Rome. My son is the first of my line in a millennium and a half to step outside of this city. He is the first in a millennium who could retrieve them and restore our honor. If Delphi still lives, he will find her… no matter how hard I try to keep him from her."_

_Susan's eyes darkened. "Your son bears the name of a legendary emperor, but my son bears the name of his uncle and predecessor. Before your son can step up to a position of leadership, my son must die. I will not let him die."_

"_You would banish my family to the city of Rome forever?" Emma snarled._

"_I would banish them if your son's power meant my son's death."_

"_Then find Delphi," Emma hissed. "Your line must find Delphi, and show my line there. If they do not, well, I suppose I'll leave your grandmother up to that. She is, after all, the goddess of revenge."_

"Delphi," I muttered. "That's what made your mother crazy. Figures, since the Sibylline Books and the family questing for them made my mother crazy." I was talking more to myself than to Luke.

Luke stared at me. "You can't say a word."

"I wouldn't know how," I just said, "but I know that's it. And I have to go there. We have to go there. The curse can be broken."

"If we go there, we'll be attacking," Luke warned.

"Why?" I asked.

He never got to say, because Tatiana busted down the door. "I'm ready."

"Took you long enough," Luke muttered. "Let's just go."

And so we went to the ships' armory.

But what was weighing on me was the memory.

That conversation had happened years ago- ten years ago, on my first birthday. It was a conversation between my mom and Octavian's mom. I had been a baby in my mother's arms.

No one should remember that long ago.

No one, it seemed, but the Titaness of memory.

This was a lot to get used to.


End file.
